1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a device and to a method for keeping warm, serving and presenting meals.
2. Description of Related Art
In restaurants, hotels, cruise ships and in the wide field of the catering market in which meals are serves at a buffet, there exists the need to present the just prepared meals and at the same time to be able to keep these warm over as long a time as possible with hardly any loss in quality, specifically without cooking them.
From the state of the art there are known devices, so-called heat retention systems, which permit food to be kept warm. A largely widespread method in, for example, company personnel restaurants, is the heat retention of meals in a water bath. These methods have numerous disadvantages such as, for example, a very sluggish heating system, an energy supply which may not be controlled or is only very difficultly controllable, a complicated handling (e.g. refilling water, waiting until the water temperature has been reached, wiping up spills of water, etc.), as well as high cleaning and operating costs. Furthermore, opening the lid several times entails a permanent temperature loss or a continuous change of temperature and water content, which individually and in combination with an increased deposit of water on account of the water bath leads to a rapid loss in quality of the meals.